Sunday, July 18, 2010

I am in the middle of restoring a Fender guitar. Years ago, like 1993, my brother found this old Fender guitar laying in the street. The body was carved like a butt. No joke. Being 19-20 at the time and an avid musician, I took it around to local music shops and basically got laughed at what I had.

It was a Fender Mustang. It was worth nothing. Probably made in the 1980's and no one played them: EVER.

Then Cobain blew a hole in his head. Kurt played Mustangs.

So I was bored once and I got some alder and "made" a new body for this guitar. It was playable, it looked unique but really, I did nothing with it. It basically sat in its (what is the original, I later found) case for the last 12 years or so.

Well... I stated a few months back that I would restore or build a Fender guitar this year and I am.

Started last week by buying a body on the internet from an original 1966 Fender Mustang. I then was researching the neck. I was searching the headstock out and everything on it said 1967-1968 when you looked at it but something was off on it. The tuners were from an older Fender. So I did the obvious thing this morning and took off the neck. I found I had a 1964 Fender neck. Why I had not noticed or convinced myself it was younger was beyond me. A nice little find!!

So now I have this neck that I have refinished. I am getting a new Fender decal for the headstock. All the hardware is clean and in good shape. The next step is to get paint for the body. I am going to go either the Fender Surf Green or Light Blue from 1964. I plan to tint the clear coat with a bit of yellow to "age" the look of it. I can't wait until this is done.

It would be something to say that I finished it. Hopefully then, I can move to the next one.